Melt Bakery Is Coming to Orchard Street

When we spoke with Suchin Pak last week, the Hester Street Fair founder told us that the market can serve as a "great boot camp for chefs and people who want to start businesses." And it looks like one of her vendors has made it through camp with flying colors.

As Bowery Boogie reports, Melt Bakery, which began selling ice cream sandwiches at Hester Street last summer, is opening a storefront on the Lower East Side. The space, at 132 Orchard Street, has been home to a number of businesses in recent years; when Melt moves in, it will be the only food-related business on the block, which is dominated by clothing, luggage, and leather retailers.

When it opens next month (if all goes according to plan), it will compete with Stellina and Il Laboratorio del Gelato for the affections of the neighborhood's ice cream aficionados. But if Melt's popularity at Saturday's Hester Street Fair was any indication, it should be able to find an audience, particularly in the coming months, when the city's heat index will make frozen dairy consumption more or less mandatory.

Have a tip or restaurant-related news? Send it to fork@villagevoice.com.